I was at the bank the other day making a hefty deposit: part in cash but the bulk in check. I went into the bank, because I don't trust ATM machines with large deposits; I want an actual physical receipt from an actual physical person. I counted out the money and decided to keep $25 in cash and deposit the rest of what I had on me. As I stood there writing out the deposit ticket and watching my daughter play peekaboo from behind the bank chairs, I thought of my favorite movie It's a Wonderful Life and of Uncle Billy counting out and then losing all that money, precipitating financial meltdown.Good thing I'm not that absent minded.
I walked up to the teller. She did not ask me if I'd forgotten anything and she did not tell me that it was usually customary to bring the money for the deposit with me. (You were scared I was going to lose that hefty deposit, weren't you?) I smiled, got that reassuring receipt and headed off to Target with my daughter. When we got to the front of the line with our purchases, and I reached into my purse to get that $25 cash I had set aside, I found that my wallet was... empty.
Oops! Apparently, I wasn't absent minded enough to lose all the money, just some of it. The cash must have been left sitting on the table where I filled out the deposit ticket while watching my daughter play peekaboo. Like Uncle Billy, I retraced my steps and like him I came up empty handed. Fortunately, this is not going to precipitate the kind of meltdown the Bailey family experienced, but I still don't think I should be trusted with cash anymore. I only hope someone out there is enjoying my $25 and it didn't end up in the hands of someone like old man Potter.
9 comments: